Is Andoni Iraola the right man to lead Bournemouth up the Premier League table? Ste Tudor examines the former Rayo Vallecano boss...
Bournemouth’s decision to sack Gary O’Neill last month was greeted with widespread surprise and criticism, the 40-year-old having revitalised the club on taking charge just ten months earlier.
Arriving four games in to last season, the Cherries already looked doomed to drop in the football betting, with a nine-goal pasting at Anfield sorely exacerbating heavy defeats to Arsenal and Manchester City.
Yet to O’Neill’s immense credit, he quickly installed a structure to his beleaguered new team that admittedly erred towards the negative but got the best out of his best players.
Bournemouth subsequently won a third of their fixtures from September to May, staying up by five clear points. Was it unfair therefore to deny a coach who had rescued them an opportunity to mould a side in his own image?
The majority verdict deemed that it was, with O’Neill’s dismissal attributed to the ruthlessness that is now sadly prevalent in Premier League predictions.
Just a few short hours later however and the South Coast club’s decision took on a very different complexion with a twist that has excited Cherries fans ever since.
Because after long coveting him, studying his games via their scouting network and doing a deep-dive on his training methods, Bournemouth’s hierarchy had somehow managed to recruit Andoni Iraola.
Iraola is a coach whose ideologies precede him, an adherence to all-out attack that the club’s official website itself refers to as ‘rock and roll’. And what’s more, it typically gets results.
At Rayo Vallecano he won promotion to La Liga in his opening season then oversaw two remarkable campaigns that had a side with the second-lowest net-spend in the top-flight consecutively compete for a European spot.
On each occasion gravity inevitably took hold, but in their uncompromising – and brave - conviction to always play on the front foot, Rayo won as many admirers as they did points.
A devotee of Marcelo Bielsa having been his captain at Athletic Bilbao, Irola’s mandate demands a high-intensity press that has his team resemble ravenous wolves hunting in packs.
🗣️ "I hope I can be at the level, I'm really grateful!"
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) July 5, 2023
Andoni Iraola speaks to the media for the first time since being named Bournemouth head coach 👔🍒pic.twitter.com/wWUlAQtFV0
It is a risky endeavour that leaves them open to counters but it works more than is does not as evidenced by Rayo winning the biggest number of high-turnovers in La Liga last season and posting the fifth most attempts on goal.
Proving themselves to be a real thorn in the side of the giants they also happened to beat Real Madrid and took four points off Barcelona.
Rayo’s high volume of shots undertaken is of particular interest given how poorly Bournemouth fared in that regard under O’Neill, accumulating a measly 358 across 2022/23, the lowest in the Premier League.
Indeed, in every offensive aspect the Cherries found themselves lacking last term and subsequently they were hardly a side to back in the live betting.
Next season they will be as they rip into the opposition, not caring one jot about reputation or circumstance. It’s going to be quite a sight for football prediction followers.
There is of course no iron-clad guarantee that Iraola’s ways will ignite in English football, but if it does the Vitality Stadium will truly come alive in the months and years to come.
And though the sacking of Gary O’Neill still feels harsh, perhaps on occasion such ruthlessness is justified. The possibility of exhilarating transformation seems as good a reason as any.
